Community figure Bill Guy will be remembered as the ‘quintessential Tottenham man’, as tributes are made following his death yesterday.

Mr Guy, an active Labour Party member and a vocal campaigner for racial equality, came to Haringey in the 1950s.

In 2011, he sat on the police’s consultative executive. Haringey Police Borough Commander Dr Victor Olisa hailed him as a “fantastic” and “inspirational” man.

He said: “He was a true member of the community of Haringey. He would have been a true member of any community anywhere in London, or anywhere in the world.

“He had real passion, one that goes beyond rhetoric. He devoted his energies to the place, and to making it a fantastic place to live. He was a great man. And he’s going to be greatly missed.”

Mr Guy was a founder and trustee of Tottenham Carnival, at which he was a marshall.

Tottenham MP David Lammy remembered “an avuncular and popular community figure, known across the constituency”.

He said: “He was always keen to remind everyone of the contribution of the Afro-Caribbean community to the rich fabric of Tottenham.

“He claimed to be the ‘first black man in Tottenham’, who would recall walking across the fields of Broadwater Farm when it was a farm and not a housing estate.

“He was a father figure to me, and with his passing it feels like the end of a generation.”